What is it? Set 262

[DoN. Nichols]

[ ... ]

That may be -- and possibly you can remove inserts to make skips in the pattern.

Umm ... where did you find non-conductive aluminum? At best, the very thin layer of oxide on the surface is non-conductive, until you get to a high enough voltage. And an anodized surface is also non-conductive -- again until you get to a high enough voltage. Past that, it conducts very well. I've had a 240 VAC difference break down the anodize coating on a chassis thanks to a mis-wiring.

And remember -- aluminum house wiring was used for a period, until it started starting fires as the wiring aged. So yes, aluminum conducts quite well.

For that matter -- the leads from the meter to the breaker box in this house are aluminum, so if it were non-conductive, I would not be able to run the computer on which I am typing this, and would be sitting here in the dark.

Even a very thick anodize on aluminum would not protect against the voltages present in a thunderstorm. Forget that theory.

Enjoy, DoN.

[humunculus]

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0..maybe a

Well, we can forget the non-conductive component (so it won't be for lightning protection on high rises), but not that a blade of some sort could be screwed on.

--riverman

[Mr. Shiv]

The writing on the handle (which I'm embarrassed to admit I hadn't noticed until now) says "McBee Patent Pending".

[Mr. Shiv]

1488: For making grooves in concrete?

[Paul K. Dickman]

OK I've got it.

It is a handle for sorting punched cards

is supposed to have several rods that poke out of the threaded holes. You put the rods that match the alignment of the mounting holes for your card set (cards like old business forms with mounting holes for a binder). Then you can manually sort them and stack them on the rods.

Paul K. Dickman

[Rob H.]

Thanks! That would have been very difficult to guess.

Rob

[Rob H.]

The answer for A: it was marked "fish bowl stand".

Here is one more:

C. The metal part is about 12" long:

[DoN. Nichols]

Bingo! Except that the cards have holes all the way along one or more edges, and to encode something, a notch is punched from the hole to the edge. To select everything which matches something (e.g. an expiration date in month and year, you have one month out of twelve punched, and one of ten holes for the last digit of the year (and perhaps one of two or three for near decades). Then, to find those which expire in that year and month, you line up all the cards, run the rods into the holes corresponding to the month and year, then lift and shake. Those which match will fall free, while the rest will be attached by at least one rod.

I used a similar system (without the fancy handle, just using knitting needles for the sort) to handle the membership files of an organization to which I belonged -- until I wrote computer programs to handle it much more quickly. (Especially getting things sorted back into alphabetic order after several extractions and updates. I forget who sold the system (it was quite affordable), but it worked amazingly well. And I would have liked to have the handle shown with the rods (assuming that the spacing was right for the pre-punched cards. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

"Mr. Shiv" fired this volley in news:06ef1f01- [e-mail]:

nah... not plaster, either

LLoyd

[humunculus]

[e-mail]...

quoted text -

This looks like something that goes below a downspout to distribute the water and avoid erosion

--riverman

[-MIKE-]

It's a freehand urinal spout for a football team (offense OR defense only), except it's tilted the wrong way.

[humunculus]

Can't be that...the acid in the urine would destroy the metal.

Upon further study, I think its a deflector for some sort of winnow. The arch in the wood base would allow for a fan to blow beneath it, and the diverging spouts would spray grain or rice or something so that it could be more efficiently winnowed.

--riverman

[Winston]

(...)

(...)

You posit a 'macro/hard winnow' instead of a 'micro/soft' winnow?

--Winston

[Rob H.]

No correct answers yet, though it *is* used with a liquid. If I had to put it in a category I would describe it as a kitchen device, though it wasn't necessarily made to be uesd in a kitchen.

Rob

[Kerry Montgomery]

Hi Rob, Is it a frog for arranging flowers? Not sure how the stems would fit into the center holes, though (the ones that are over a thin vertical section). Kerry

[Steve W.]

Humidifier? Fill with water and set on heat source to add moisture to the air? This is the ceramic item with holes correct?

[Rob H.]

The ceramic piece with the holes has been identified, it's an Asian ceramic pillow, someone checked at a Chinese establishment and was told that it was filled with herbs, the aromas of which induce sleep and/or restfulness.

I guess I'll go ahead and give the answer for the other one, it was used for filling 18 small cups at the same time:

used to have the patent for it but can't seem to locate it right now. I think the device was supposedly used at a church, I've heard of churches that served grape juice at their services though I've never been to one like that.

Rob

[Steve W.]

Hmm didn't see that. That looks just like the old communion tray from my wifes former UMC church. Grape juice was used because it would be illegal (now) to use wine. That was what was originally used (and still is in Catholic churches) during communion. That funnel device was in the kitchen there.